Noah lost his epithet "the pious" when he began to occupy himself with
the growing of the vine. He became a "man of the ground," and this
first attempt to produce wine at the same time produced the first to
drink to excess, the first to utter curses upon his associates, and the
first to introduce slavery. This is the way it all came about. Noah
found the vine which Adam had taken with him from Paradise, when he was
driven forth. He tasted the grapes upon it, and, finding them
palatable, he resolved to plant the vine and tend it.[57] On the
selfsame day on which he planted it, it bore fruit, he put it in the
wine-press, drew off the juice, drank it, became drunken, and was
dishonored—all on one day. His assistant in the work of cultivating the
vine was Satan, who had happened along at the very moment when he was
engaged in planting the slip he had found. Satan asked him: "What is it
thou art planting here?"